October Afternoon

Thursday Sketch with Sasha and Suz

Hi everyone! Sasha here!

I have a new sketch for you to jumpstart your layout today. This sketch would be perfect for you to showcase multiple photos. Suz and I will each be showing a layout example. 

Here is Suz's take on the sketch. I'm totally hungry after looking at this layout though! :D I love that Suz added that strip of patterned paper and a border sticker on the right hand side, and I adore the stitching lines for her precious handwritten journaling. 

 

Suz said :

"When I first saw Sasha's sketch, I knew it would work perfectly for some recent photos I took on a road trip with my hubby to an organic restaurant. I decided to use some photo and a few OA Doodads in place of where some of the photos are in Sasha's sketch. For the journaling areas, I decided to stitch a journaling box and a few stitched lines to journal above. I love the cascading movement to Sasha's sketch as it draws one's eyes down the page. Thanks Sasha for the inspiration!! :)"

OA ITEMS USED IN THIS DESIGN: DAILY FLASH: Flash Chip | Stars & Hearts, DAILY FLASH: Catch Phrase Roller Stamp | "Inspiration", DAILY FLASH: Eggnog | Pop Drops, DAILY FLASH ALPHAS: Snap Peas, Story Book ("green"), DAILY FLASH ALPHAS: Clover, Story Book ("Ruggles"), SATURDAY MORNINGS: 12 x 12 patterned paper; "Toast", SATURDAY MORNINGS: Doodads, SATURDAY MORNINGS: Border & Label Stickers

And here's what I made based on the sketch.

Can we take a moment and *sigh* for Treasure Map? I adore that collection oh so much!

I only used 2 photos and replaced the rest with randomly cut squares and rectangles of patterned papers, but followed the sketch quite closely otherwise. I scrapped about our very quiet vacation way back in 2009. We were practically the only family there. It was amazing to say the least. 

I completed the layout with some chipboards (heart and cloud), some Public Library doodads, a few pop drops from our Daily Flash Milk Money collection, and also a very cute Treasure Map anchor tin pin.

The title was made up from Early American Shop Front and Stop Light Story Book stickers. I'm still head over heels in love with those cursive alphas stickers just so you know! :)

We hope you'll have time to play with the sketch. I'm @sashafarina on Instagram. I usually post sneaks and my layouts with #octoberafternoon in the description. You can also share your creations with us via the October Afternoon Flickr Gallery.

 

Happy scrapping!

 

 

Celebrate Mom | Mother's Day Card

Hello everyone! Suz here with you today to remind you (lest any of you have forgotten) that Mother's Day is this weekend!  (Why do I feel that this is not news to you, but that I should be posting this reminder over on ESPN's Facebook wall?! LOL) ;)

Here's is a simple card I made for my momma by layering up a few items from the Public Library collection. Being a mom to two boys, I love taking any opportunity to break open the florals, the pretties, the more girly items in the OA collections. Card making gives me the perfect reason to do so and this collection worked well for my Mother's Day theme.

 

A little close up of the details:

 

 

 

OA PRODUCTS USED TO CREATE THIS CARD: Public Library "Librarian" Patterned Paper, PL Mini Market Index Card alphas, PL "Sh-h-h" patterned paper, PL Tidbits, PL acrylic stamps "true story", PL "Bookworm" Label Stickers, Daily Flash Milk Money Pop Drop (heart)

 

Hope each of you enjoy your Mother's Day weekend! Thank you for stopping by today!

Suz

Topic Tuesday: Motherhood

With Mother's Day less than a week away, this is the perfect time to reflect on motherhood. Take a moment to think about your mother's legacy -- what did she teach you, and what, in turn, do you teach others? In what way has your mother shaped the person that you are today? 

After reflecting on these questions, I created the following layout: 

The side-by-side photos of my mother as a baby and as a grown woman brought to mind more questions about how mothers are made, and my journaling followed from that line of thought. Eventually, I ended up reflecting on myself as a mother, and on what I seek to impart to my daughter. The sense of legacy is at the center of it all.  

Design-wise, this page is a mix of various October Afternoon lines, including Eggnog (the B-side of "Sugar Plums") and Public Library ("Reference Section," "Dust Jacket," and "Due Date"). The manila and cream-colored cards layered on the page are the flip sides of October Afternoon Miscellany. Some of the cards have holiday or travel themes, but on the flip side, the cards can work with any topic! 

Now it's your turn: create a page about motherhood. Focus on the legacy of the mothers in your family, or perhaps on another related idea. I would love to see what you come up with, so please consider sharing your project in the October Afternoon Flickr gallery, or share a link below! 

Thanks for visiting today! 

Monday Challenge : Scraps! Papers! Patterns!

Happy Monday everyone! 

Today I want to challenge you to push aside your 12 x 12 and only use your scraps! Except for your background, that is. Being on the team, I have my October Afternoon scraps separated into a ziplock bag and I often dig into them first when I create, but I still cut up new papers for each layout. For this challenge, I tell myself, no cutting new sheet of 12 x 12 and I'm only allowed to use what I have in my OA scraps bag. 

Here's the layout I made!

I had so much fun creating this layout!

I made use of my Silhouette Cameo to cut all the alphabets (font : Blackout, Midnight variation) but you can definitely do something like this without the machine. It will just take more time, but more fun time is good! :)

What a colorful page, right? I used scraps from Public Library, Treasure Map, and Daily Flash collection. Yes! Three different collections and they all work together. That is one of the thing I like best about October Afternoon. 

Due to the silly fun nature of this layout, I was also able to use that round framed spectacles chipboard. I've been wanting to use it for a long time and now I'm glad I waited. I also stamped with Daily Flash Milk Money stamp set (A+ and mini graduate at the bottom of the layout) and Daily Flash Homemade stamp set (color outside the lines).

I wanted to say that three chipboard arrows pointing to the cluster of photos and the 'thumbs up!' Double Take Sticker are my favorite but that would be a lie because I love that Oh Snap! chipboard too and also that cute Whale tin pin. In short I love everything about this fun layout. Yes, that is about right! :)

So many colors, so many patterns. This is not a normal layout for me, but somehow it fits my personality. :) I love my scraps! Now it's your turn. Go. Have fun!

Do share if you play along. I'm @sashafarina on Instagram. I usually post sneaks and my layouts with #octoberafternoon in the description. You can also post your creations to the October Afternoon Flickr Gallery.

 

 

 

 

 

Inspired by a Song

Do you ever hear a song, and the lyrics or title connect you with a memory or a relationship?  I (Patricia) usually have to open Notes on my iPhone as quickly as possible to write down the lyrics that inspire a layout or I will forgot.  As I was singing The Sound of Music's Do Re Me, because it is stuck in my head from my daughter and I singing it while jumping on the trampoline, I had one of those moments where I knew this needed to be scrapped.

This was a fun layout to gather lots of supplies to create the bits on each square grid to represent the song, leaving the last square to fill with a favorite photo from us on the trampoline.

Treasure Map:  Moby Dick Isle Pattern Paper, Skull Rock Pattern Paper, Moaning Cavern Pattern Paper, Hangman’s Cove Pattern Paper, Shipwreck Coast Pattern Paper,   Dead Man’s Pass Pattern Paper, Mermaid Bay Pattern Paper, Tidbits;  Daily Flash:   Letter Stickers, To the Point Chipboard, Stars and Hearts, Picture This Stamps, Homemade Stamps;  Apple Cider:  Memory Cards; Egg Nog:  Metal Badges, Cookies for Santa Stamp Set; Saturday Mornings:  Shape Stickers, Doo-Dads, Clouds Stamp, Memory Card Mix, Brads; Public Library Brads

The base of each square is 2.5" and then hand cut all the bits to go on top.

This is also a fun way to incorporate new and leftover October Afternoon supplies.

I am so very excited to have the talented Mou Saha with me today to take on this challenge!  

I love to use song lyrics as titles and as part of my journaling because sometimes they beautifully sum up my thoughts. When Patricia asked me to take inspiration from song lyrics, it was close to my heart. My oldest daughter loves listening to music and her current favorite is the Handwritten album by Shawn Mendes. We are listening to it a lot and my youngest often falls asleep listening to him. One song we love in particular is Life of the Party. I used that as my title and a few of the lyrics to tell my story.

I combined papers from Daily Flash Girl Talk and Public Library collections along with stickers from Treasure Map, Public Library and Saturday Mornings collections.

Thanks Patricia!

 

Thank you Mou for playing along with me and sharing this beautiful layout and adorable photo with us!

 

If you would like to play along with us, please share on Instagram using hashtag #octoberafternoon and tagging @octoberafternoon and @patricia_roebuck.  We would love to see! You can also share your projects on our OA Facebook wall or the OA Flickr gallery.

 

Thank you so much for joining us today!

Thursday Sketch with Sasha and Jill

Hello everyone!

I hope your Thursday is beautiful wherever you are. I made a sketch for you today, together with a layout example. 

Let me walk you through my layout so you can see where I followed the sketch and where I decided to 'bend the rules' a little. I'm not saying my sketch is a rule, but more of a guideline, a nudge, a little help for you to start your layout.

Instead of 'slicing my layout' vertically as per the sketch, I 'sliced it' horizontally, because I feel that it will be more suitable for my photo. I used the ship part of the Whale Bone Reef patterned paper, to compensate my small photo and also because I love that ship! Where we live, many ships (not pirate ships. haha!) come and go and if we pay close attention, on quiet mornings, we can hear them too! :)

You can also place patterned papers on the little squares and rectangle in the sketch. I decided to imitate the squares with random machine stitching roughly in the same shapes. I housed my title in one of the stitched squares. If you haven't noticed, I'm totally crushing on the Daily Flash 'cursive' Alphas lately. This one is in Rhubarb. Such a beautiful pink. The ampersand is in Dandelions (my favorite yellow!).

On the cluster housing my photo, I used some stickers from Treasure Map 12x12 Shape Stickers and also some Doo-dads. 

I can't not stamp on my layout, I really like looking through my stamp and finding one or two that will work for my layout. For this one, the 'once upon a time' stamp from our Public Library collection fits perfectly because to be frank, now we don't really have the time to spend hours and hours at the beach anymore. Work and school take up chunks of our time and when weekend comes, we only wanna sleep and craft at home mostly! :D I do miss this a lot and will have to make the time and effort to drag the girls out again! :)

Jill played along too. Here's her take on the sketch

Jill said

" Although I am accustomed to creating 12 x 12 pages, from time to time, I am a sucker for an 8.5 x 11 page, and Sasha’s sketch brought about one of those times. The design speaks to my scrappy little heart — lots of small photos and lots of room for journaling. I had a bunch of detail photos from Easter morning, when my daughter and I dyed eggs, and they worked perfectly with this sketch. Because of the playful nature of the moment, I departed from the clean, refined design in favor of one that was more whimsical. Since the colors in the photos are already so intense, I softened the bright yellow patterned paper background (from the Daily Flash Snapshots collection) a bit by using a brayer to spread on some paint. I then layered small pieces of paper from the Treasure Map, Saturday Mornings, and Daily Flash collections behind the photos, opting for papers with just a hint of color. I then did some freestyle (read “crazy”) stitching from the first photo at the top to the title on the bottom (apparently not noticing in the process that I had turned one of the photos on its side — oh well, play through!). Thanks, Sasha, for sharing this sketch! "

We hope you'll have time to play with the sketch. I'm @sashafarina on Instagram. I usually post sneaks and my layouts with #octoberafternoon in the description. You can also share your creations with us via the October Afternoon Flickr Gallery.

  

Have fun and happy scrapping!

 

 

Tuesday Inspiration: Bold Colors

Hi everyone, Mou here today with Patricia and this bold spicy color inspiration!

(Via Pinterest)

Don't these colors remind you of the Treasure Map collection? Well, Patricia and I both thought so! Here's Patricia's bold and beautiful layout balancing the colors with white space:

This is what Patricia says: "Instantly I was inspired by Mou’s color inspiration and found it was so easy to find all of the colors in the Treasure Map pattern papers.  My photo didn’t have a lot of color to it, but it did have the green and the grey.  I found that my photo worked best with using the Shipwreck Coast pattern paper as my background to give it more contrast.  I trimmed that to 8.25”x10.75” and layered it on top of the back of X Marks the Spot pattern paper to create more contrast.  I used a star metal die to cut from the red card on the Journal Cards pattern paper.  Then layered another of the Journal Cards pattern paper cards in the green and grey.  I matted my photo to give it even more contrast with the Hangman’s Cove pattern paper but wanted to create a frame frame for the photo, similar to the X on a map.  So using a sheet of vellum, I cut a 4” scalloped circle, trimmed the piece down to fit in the center vertically framing the photo.  I stitched my title “Carpe Diem to another die cut and added it to the cluster of more die cuts and sticker from the Treasure Map collection.  I finished the layout with more color using my stash of October Afternoon buttons and brads from both Saturday Mornings and Public Library."

 

Thanks Patricia for the FUN layout!

 

And here's a card I made using these colors as my inspiration:

 

I used the Treasure Map Hangman's Cove paper as my base layer and added a slightly smaller block of Crow's Nest paper on top. I cut a 3" x 3" block from Skull Rock paper and cut it out along the scallop edge. The grey muted down the bold colors a bit and provided me a focal point to add my sentiment and embellishment. I added a banner piece from the Sew Fun Banners from the collection. While they are great as banners, you can always use a piece or two to embellish your project. Finally, I added a Tid Bits from the collection as my sentiment.

Here's a close-up of my card.

Hope you find this color combination inspiring! Thanks for stopping by :)

Monday Challenge: No Patterned Paper

Hi Friends!

It's Laura here today, and I have the pleasure of issuing you a new challenge.  My challenge is a simple one, and it's to not use patterned paper.  Typically I will start a project by picking out patterned papers, so for me this was truly challenging!  October Afternoon makes so so many cute products that I knew I could come up with something fun all the same.

Next month is Mother's Day, and I thought I would try and get ahead of the game and start my card making.

I pulled out the 12x12 Public Library sticker sheet and used two large ones to create my card.

For a fun unique detail on this card, I trimmed down the front of the card so the inside would by longer, and then used a border punch to add scallops.  It's such a simple yet fun detail to add personality to your cards.  I also dressed up the floral sticker with pop drops!

I created the simple sentiment with the soft striped Grey chipboard alphas, and then used a glitter pen to add a slight sparkle.  It's hard to photograph, but you can see some of the shine in the photo below, it's so pretty in person.

Thanks so much for stopping by today! I hope you feel inspired by this challenge, and get crafting. Please share your projects on our Flickr group, and use the hashtag #octoberafternoon on other social media platforms so we can see all your awesome designs!

Have a great day!

Laura :)

Inspiration Tuesday with Sasha and Alex

Hi everyone! 

I found this image on Pinterest the other day and couldn't wait to get scrapping! I thought I'd share my inspiration with you as well!

Isn't this just fabulous? 

(source)

I was instantly inspired by the stamping on the wooden pegs, I think those are so charming! Here's my take on the inspiration piece :

The first thing I did on this layout is the random rectangles machine stitching. There was no template or any guide at all. It was fun! Then, can I have a 'YAY!' for labels? :D I rounded up all my Daily Flash Double Take sticker sheets and stamped on the labels. I started with one and just keep on stamping until my sentences were complete. I didn't even pay too much attention on making them straight! I couldn't if I wanted to anyway as I was using my old wooden stamp set from studio G, just in case you're curious. 

You can say the labels made the layout. The rest of it came together pretty fast. Some chipboard embellishments (arrows), Daily Flash alphabet stickers (xoxo), some stamping (once upon a time, ✭✭✭✭✭, date stamp) and a couple of pop drops and my layout is complete. I added the two bicycle wood veneer because well, marriage to me is a journey where two people try their best to balance each other. It's a ride for sure. :)

Alex played along too! And let me tell you that I squealed when I saw her layout for the first time!! It is so adorable! I plan to scraplift her when I have the time! :D 

Alex said :

"The second I saw Sasha's inspiration piece, I thought of OA's awesome Daily Flash roller stamps. I pulled them out along with some white cardstock and different shades of ink and started to make these colorful strips. The little "my show" tidbit from the Saturday Mornings collection inspired me to scrap these photos of my boy. To finish of my quick and easy layout, I added some more bits and pieces not only from Saturday Mornings but also from DF Snapshots, DF All Boy and DF Girl Talk. A couple of chipboard and pop-drops stars and some mist splatters aaaaand it was done :-) I hope you like it!

Sasha, thank you so much for inspiring me to pull out those stamps and play! I had a blast making this one."

I hope we've managed to inspire you! Let me know if you play along, I'm @sashafarina on Instagram. I usually post sneaks and my layouts with #octoberafternoon in the description. You can also share your creations with us via the October Afternoon Flickr Gallery.

Have fun and happy scrapping!

 

 

Designer Challenge | Out Like A Lamb

Happy Monday everyone! Suz here with you today (along with the lovely and talented Mou!) We are starting to see signs of spring here in the States, and are enjoying the longer days of daylight too. We hope you are having lovely weather where you are in the world as well!

Here is today's Designer's Challenge/inspiration piece to get your creative juices flowing just in time for spring and Easter:

 

 Source: http://www.pullingatstrings.com/blog/2011/06/07/tutorial-tuesday-sheeeeeeep/

 

Mou created an adorable bookmark for this challenge and here is what she had to say about it:

"Blurb: I loved the little lamb in Suz's inspiration piece! I wanted to design a bookmark around the lamb I found on the slightly older October Afternoon collection, Farm Girl 12 x12 paper Milk Pail. I started by adding bits and blocks of patterned papers from Public Library, Travel Girl and Daily Flash Girl Talk collections, layered various wash tapes, and stitched them in place. I added some Daily Flash Apple Cider Pop Drops hearts and a brad. Finally, I punched a hole and tied a ribbon from my stash to finish."

 

 

I love how she incorporated so many little details on the the bookmark and several patterns of OA washi tape!

 

 

I have to confess, I had a bunch of creative ideas that involved soft and cuddly, lovely little things (lambs, baby animals, etc) but then the DT kits arrived with Treasure Map last week and I immediately wanted to get scrapping with it. So I took pieces of design elements from the inspiration piece and got to creating!

  

 

In truth, I did pull some design elements from the inspiration piece; the red, the ombre blues, the heart. the "gallon, quart, pint" principle of design ;) So, I think it goes to show that inspirational pieces are just jumping off points for creativity and one can use any or all of the piece for inspiration! 

 

If you decide to take on this challenge, please share with us here on the blog, on the OA Facebook Wall, or on Twitter (@oct_afternoon) and Instagram @octoberafternoon. Please tag me @SuzMannecke so I can see and use the hashtag #oadesignerchallenge

Have a fantastic week!

Suz & Mou